Letters directionality effects on the inhibition of mirror generalization in the recognition of objects: evidence from the negative priming paradigm

Abstract Previous studies have shown that inhibiting the mirror generalization mechanism in recognizing letters/words containing reversible and non-reversible letters has a right-asymmetry bias. In this paper, we analysed for the first time whether this bias can also be observed in the visual recognition of objects as a “collateral” effect of literacy on cognition. To test this, we asked participants to decide whether pairs of letters (used as primes) and pairs of animals (used as probes) were the same or different. Probes of identical (and non-identical) animals presented in mirror and non-mirror positions were preceded by right- or left-oriented reversible and non-reversible letters. Results showed that participants were slower at recognizing images of the same animals presented in mirror than in non-mirror positions (indicative of a negative priming effect) when they were preceded by right-oriented reversible and by left-oriented non-reversible letters, suggesting that the directionality of the letters impact object recognition.